Untitled Landscape, Bellport (No.1042) 1991

Arthur Pinajian made this untitled landscape painting sometime before 1999, probably with oils on canvas. The colors are muted but punchy, and the brushstrokes are quick, gestural, like little jabs or pats. I imagine Pinajian outside, maybe a bit grumpy with the light or the wind, but he is so into it. What I like is that the landscape is just an excuse, or a departure point. I wonder if he’s thinking about de Kooning, about Milton Resnick, maybe even Joan Mitchell, all of them making landscapes but not landscapes, you know? See that black mark, like a dark cloud? It’s so loaded, it's like a slap of paint, but it makes me feel things. He's not just copying nature; he's responding to it, wrestling with it. That red mark next to it feels angry somehow, but also kind of joyous. It’s like he’s saying, "I'm here, I’m painting, I’m alive!" And then he probably went inside for a drink.